Colony Serves Corned Beef and Cabbage Pizza

For "one day only," the notorious no-frills Connecticut bar pie institution celebrates St. Patrick's Day with a special pizza.

Arthur Bovino

Hot oil pie at Colony Grill.

Regulars at Colony Grill in Stamford, Connecticut, on St. Patrick's Day may well find themselves doing double-takes when they see the signs on the wall: "You are not dreaming! For one day, and one day only, the Colony Presents: Corned Beef & Cabbage Pizza!"

That's right. This thincrust bar pie institution, notorious for its no-frills demeanor, and no-special-options policy, the pizzeria known for not making exceptions, is making a special holiday pie? What's next? Conceding best bar pie to Eddie's in New Hyde Park?

"You're right," noted Ken Martin, the co-owner of the Fairfield Colony location, "we don't do specialty pies. But we thought a lot of intangibles aligned to make this pizza fit into our concept."

Which stars aligned for Colony's first ever corned beef and cabbage pizza? What were the intangibles? According to Ken, "Colony" was the nickname of the Irish neighborhood in Stamford where Colony Grill was established by Irish owners in 1935. "We even have a four-leaf clover on our signage and all our business materials."

The Colony used to serve a corned beef and cabbage dinner in years past, but at some point the tradition fell by the wayside. "We thought a good way to pay tribute to the Irish heritage of the old neighborhood was to bring back the corned beef and cabbage, but to do it simply — as toppings on our pizza."

Ken and his partners (Paul Coniglio, Cody Lee, and Chris Drury) came up with the idea in Fairfield and bounced it off Jim Screws and Gary Games, who own the Stamford spot. "They thought it was a neat concept and decided to go ahead with it as well."

The pie will be served without the standard red sauce, and will be topped with five or six slices of corned beef, and shredded or julienned cabbage that will be tossed with secret spices. One thing Ken would tell us about the preparation was the use of the pizzeria's signature ingredient, "We add just a touch of our hot oil to the cabbage preparation, to make the pie unique to Colony."

Ken noted that customers can order just corned beef on the pizza if they don't want cabbage, or vice versa, and said if the pizza goes over well, the special might become an annual tradition.